<figure id="attachment_317447" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-317447" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="9b064dd2"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/06/a656a12dbbd9ed86916fbabb7e248b1a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-317447" class="wp-caption-text">A large number of scrap tires left in the mountains in Kashiwazaki City. They are highly flammable and could cause a catastrophe if a forest fire broke out.</figcaption></figure>
 About 10 kilometers from the center of Kashiwazaki City, Niigata Prefecture, a huge number of scrap tires have been left in a mountainous area. About 40,000 tires are piled up in a heap, some of them half buried in the ground.
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 Some of the tires are half buried in the ground. A local company took over the farm from the prefectural government and started a business of collecting scrap tires while running the farm. However, the company went bankrupt in 1996, leaving behind countless scrap tires. After that, the city acquired the land, but it was not managed properly, and fires have broken out several times. I&#8217;m worried that the fires will spread and cause a massive wildfire.
 Because no one has done anything about it for 27 years, the decaying ranch buildings and vehicles remain beside the abandoned tires. The city has decided to do the heavy lifting and finally start disposing of the tires this year. A Kashiwazaki city official (from the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Division) told us.
 We decided to dispose of the tires because we felt we could not leave them behind for future generations. Since the site is in the mountains with overgrown grass and no roads, a temporary road of about 1 km will be built by September of this year, and the tires will be removed by next fall. The total cost of the disposal is expected to be 120 million yen. We have not yet decided where to dispose of the waste tires.
 About 40,000 tires will be left in the mountains for some time to come. The danger of a large-scale wildfire spreading to the tires will continue until next fall.
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 Kashiwazaki is not the only city with abandoned tires. According to the Japan Automobile Tyre Manufacturers Association (JATMA), there are currently about 2.5 million illegally dumped scrap tires.
 According to the Japan Automobile Tire Manufacturers Association (JATMA), there are currently about 2.5 million tires being illegally dumped in Kashiwazaki. However, there are still waste tires in many areas that have remained piled up for many years. The number of waste tires that have been disposed of by local governments through JATMA&#8217;s support system has reached nearly 3 million since 2005&#8243; (Environment Department).
 The abandonment of waste tires causes tremendous damage to the environment. Atsushi Sogabe, an associate professor at Hirosaki University who specializes in environmental ecology, says, &#8220;Waste tires cause bad odors and fires.
 Waste tires are a source of odors and fires, and if left unattended for long periods of time, they can leak heavy metals and oil, contaminating the soil and the ocean. There is also the danger of water accumulating inside the tires, which can lead to a massive outbreak of dengue fever-transmitting mosquitoes.
 Abandoned tires are not just a problem deep in the mountains. It is a serious and urgent issue that will have a negative impact on our daily lives.
<figure id="attachment_317445" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-317445" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ba76e332"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/06/c73a8c3ee83e4597d7c4c98b8bdf62b4.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-317445" class="wp-caption-text"> Kashiwazaki City, Niigata Prefecture: &#8220;40,000 abandoned tires&#8221; deep in the mountains.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_317446" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-317446" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="cff6e846"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/06/a3cfdafe1072e835ceda870d3678427a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-317446" class="wp-caption-text"> Kashiwazaki City, Niigata Prefecture: &#8220;40,000 End-of-Life Tires Left Behind Deep in the Mountains&#8221; (Alarm Report)</figcaption></figure>
 From &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; June 30, 2023 issue

 Masayoshi Katayama (Journalist)

 About 10 km away from the center of Kashiwazaki City, Niigata Prefecture, an enormous number of discarded tires lie abandoned in the mountains. The number is a staggering 40,000 tires! They have become a serious problem because they adversely affect our lives by causing bad odors, fires, water and soil pollution, and so on.

Astonishing! 40,000 discarded tires left in the mountains of Kashiwazaki City, Niigata Prefecture… “Pile of Tires of Shudder” Photo

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